China  Society  Pamphlets 


Number  II. 


The  American  Constitution 
and  the  Chinese  Republic 

By 

ROBERT  McELROY,  Ph.  D.,  EE.  D. 


Seventh  Thousand 


Is.sued  hy 

The  China  Society  of  America  (Inc.) 

19  West  44th  Street 


New  York  City 


“If  a man  takes  no  thought  about  what  is  distant, 
he  will  find  sorrow  near  at  hand.” 

— The  Analects,  Book  IV,  Chapter  XL 


China  Society  Pamphlets 


Number  II. 


The  American  Constitution 
and  the  Chinese  Republic 

By 

ROBERT  McELROY,  Ph.  D.,  LL.  D. 


Second  Edition 


Issued  by 


The  China  Society  of  America  ( Inc. ) 

19  West  44th  Street 
New  York  City 


1922 


NO  RIGHTS  RESERVED 


REPUBLICATION  INVITED 


One  hundred  and  thirty-five  years  ago,  forty 
Americans,  some  native  born,  some  alien  born,  but 
all  alike  Americans,  affixed  their  names  to  the  docu- 
ment which  we  reverence  as  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  of  America.  The  same  day  Wash- 
ington transmitted  the  text  to  Congress,  with  the 
words,  “It  is  obviously  impracticable,  in  the  Federal 
Government  of  these  States,  to  secure  all  rights  of 
independent  sovereignty  to  each,  and  yet  provide  for 
the  interest  and  safety  of  all.  . . . It  is  at  all 

times  difficult  to  draw  with  precision  the  line  be- 
tween those  rights  which  must  be  surrendered  and 
those  which  may  be  reserved.” 

Fortunately  these  signers  did  not  feel  that  the 
work  was  over  because  the  draft  was  drawn  and 
signed,  but  faced  consciously  and  courageously  the 
fight  which  they  knew  to  be  imminent  in  ever}' 
state,  before  the  surrender  of  any  item  of  indepen- 
dent sovereignty. 

In  the  end,  the  Constitution  triumphed  and  Amer- 
ica became  a nation.  But,'  reckoning  from  July  4, 
1776,  when  the  Declaration  of  Independence  w’as 
signed,  it  took  us  thirteen  years  to  establish  a stable 
government,  a fact  which  should  preach  patience  to 
those  who  expect  quick  action  from  a vast  nation 
like  China,  whose  enormous  population  is  just  be- 
ginning to  catch  a vision  of  a government  higher 
than  autocracy. 

Unmindful  of  the  troubled  history  of  our  own 
early  days,  we  too  readily  cry  failure  as  we  read 
Peking  dispatches  declaring:  “Attempt  to  revive 
popular  government  in  China  is  on  the  verge  of 
collapse.  . Military  leaders  are  openly  de- 

fying the  Government ; Cabinet  ministers  are  refus- 
ing to  assume  the  responsibilities  of  their  posts ; 
the  Treasury  is  empty.” 

We  forget  that  in  1783,  seven  years  after  our  Dec- 
laration of  Independence,  eighty  drunken  soldiers 
drove  our  Congress  out  of  Philadelphia,  while  the 
people  of  that  city,  then  numbering  32,000  souls, 
looked  on  in  silence  or  in  open  mockery. 


We  forget  that  a year  later  a French  agent,  after 
searching  vainly  for  the  American  Congress,  report- 
ed to  his  government;  “There  is  in  America  no 
general  government,  neither  Congress,  nor  Presi- 
dent, nor  head  of  any  administrative  department.” 
We  forget  that  we,  too,  knew  what  it  was  to  see 
the  finger  of  scorn,  and  to  hear  the  disheartening 
cry,  “You  cannot  succeed.” 

Certainly  we  owe  no  item  of  such  success  as  we 
have  attained  to  those  prophets  of  evil  who  insisted 
that  we  surrender  at  discretion  before  firing  a shot. 
Our  nation  is  a monument  to  faith,  not  to  pessi- 
mism, and  our  success  with  the  vastly  greater  inter- 
national problems  which  now  confront  us  will  like- 
wise be  a monument  to  those  who  have  faith  in  the 
principles  which  made  us  a nation  out  of  the  blood 
of  all  races  and  kindreds  and  tongfues. 

But  though  we  have  done  much  toward  securing 
a place  in  the  sun  for  those  ideals  which  we  hold  in 
trust  for  all  humanity,  much  more  remains  to  be 
done.  Real  and  final  security  will  be  gained,  not 
upon  the  basis  of  our  success  alone,  but  upon  the 
basis  of  world-wide  adoption  of  liberal  government, 
the  general  establishment  in  international  relations 
of  the  principles  which  have  given  peace  among 
American  states. 

In  view  of  this  fact,  we  are  properly  thinking  less 
today  of  the  one  hundred  and  thirty-five  years  that 
have  passed  than  of  the  one  hundred  and  thirty-five 
years  that  began  when  we  joined  the  Allies  as  the 
avowed  champion  of  the  right  of  men  everywhere 
“to  choose  their  own  ways  of  life  and  of  obedience.” 

The  problem  of  the  year  1787  was  how  to  join  in 
effective  union  thirteen  states  with  a common  faith 
in  representative  government,  to  the  end  that  the 
people  thereof  might  have  peace.  The  problem  of  the 
year  1922  is  how  to  join  in  effective  union  fifty  odd 
nations,  many  of  whom  know  little  and  care  less 
about  representative  government.  In  the  face  of 
that  problem  it  most  vitally  concerns  us  whether 
the  largest  and  most  potential  of  them  all,  China, 
succeeds  or  fails  in  her  attempt  to  establish  a repre- 
sentative republic.  It  is  important,  not  alone  to 


4 


China,  but  to  all  nations,  that  she  be  not  called  a 
failure  before  she  has  failed.  It  is  our  future,  as 
well  as  hers,  which  hangs  in  the  balance  as  the  vast 
unwieldy  bulk  of  China  struggles  toward  the  light. 

Gouverneur  Morris  was  right  when  he  informed 
his  colleagues  in  the  Convention  of  1787  that  he  sat, 
not  alone  as  a representative  of  Americans,  but  of 
the  whole  human  race;  for,  he  said,  “the  whole  hu- 
man race  will  be  affected  by  the  proceedings  of  this 
Convention.” 

History  has  seen,  already,  the  fulfilment  of  that 
daring  prophecy.  No  modern  nation  has  remained 
unaffected  by  the  ideals  of  our  Constitution.  Even 
the  Constitution  of  the  new  Republic  of  Germany, 
according  to  Hugo  Preuss,  its  reputed  author,  “in 
many  fundamental  institutions,  is  akin  to  them.” 

But  China,  more  definitely,  more  openly  and  more 
unreservedly  than  any  other  nation,  has  declared 
her  intention  of  taking  our  Constitution  as  a model 
for  her  own.  According  to  a Peking  Associated 
Press  dispatch  of  August  2,  the  Chinese  Cabinet  has 
definitely  announced  that  “Parliament  and  President 
Li  Yuan-hung  are  in  complete  agreement  over  the 
adoption  of  a permanent  Constitution  for  China 
similar  to  that  of  the  United  States.”  And  in  a re- 
cent letter  to  President  Edmunds  of  the  Canton 
Christian  College,  President  Li  himself  says:  “To 
fit  men  for  citizenship  under  the  form  of  government 
of  which  your  country  is  the  inspiration,  every  aid 
should  be  summoned  to  our  assistance.” 

This  is  a call  which  goes  deeper  than  the  oft-re- 
peated cry  for  bread.  China  is  facing  today,  upon 
a scale  unprecedented,  unexampled,  the  task  of  en- 
throning the  very  ideals  of  which  our  Constitution 
is  the  inspiration,  and  in  the  interest  of  the  things 
which  count  for  gain  to  every  nation,  she  is  entitled 
to  our  best  aid.  With  liberal  government  safely  es- 
tablished in  China,  its  future  in  Asia,  the  birthplace 
of  the  human  race,  will  be  secure.  But  failure  in 
China  must  mean  either  reaction,  or  the  pande- 
monium of  some  new  experimentation,  some  un- 
dreamed-of type  of  Bolshevism,  menacing  the  wel- 
fare not  of  one  nation,  but  of  all. 


5 


Only  slowly  has  the  idea  of  the  importance  to  us 
of  China’s  successes  or  failures  dawned  upon  the 
minds  of  Americans.  In  1853  William  H.  Seward 
predicted  “that  henceforth,  every  year,  European 
commerce,  European  politics,  European  thought, 
European  activities  . . and  European  con- 
nections . . . will  . . . sink  in  importance, 

while  the  Pacific  Ocean,  its  shores,  its  islands,  and 
the  vast  regions  beyond  will  become  the  chief  thea- 
tre of  events  in  the  world’s  great  hereafter."  But 
the  provincially  minded  of  his  generation  scouted  the 
idea,  and  Seward’s  farsighted  purchase,  Alaska,  the 
finger  of  America  pointing  to  the  awakening  Orient, 
was  contemporaneously  styled  “Seward’s  Polar  Bear 
Garden.” 

A generation  later  John  Hay  solemnly  declared: 
“Whoever  understands  China  socially,  politically, 
economically  and  religiously  holds  the  key  to  the 
world’s  politics  for  the  next  five  centuries.”  And 
since  his  day  scores  of  men,  wise  in  the  ways  of  the 
East  and  conscious  of  the  dawn  of  a modern  Orient, 
have  urged  the  same  thesis,  eager  that  America 
should  face  her  problems  before  they  overwhelm 
her,  should  seize  her  opportunities  for  service  and 
for  legitimate  gain  before  someone  steps  into  the 
troubled  waters  before  her. 

Europe  today  understands  the  universal  signifi- 
cance of  the  dawning  Orient  far  better  than  do  we. 
In  a summary  of  the  proceedings  of  the  conference 
of  Prime  Ministers  and  Representatives  of  the 
United  Kingdom,  the  Dominions  and  India,  held  in 
1921,  General  Smuts  wrote:  “The  scene  has  shifted 
away  from  Europe  to  the  Far  East  and  to  the  Pa- 
cific. The  problems  of  the  Pacific  are  to  my  mind 
the  world  problems  of  the  next  fifty  years  or  more. 
. . . There  Europe,  Asia  and  America  are  meet- 

ing, and  there,  I believe,  the  next  great  chapter  of 
human  history  will  be  enacted.  I ask  myself,  what 
will  be  the  character  of  that  history?  Will  it  be 
along  the  old  lines?  Will  it  be  the  old  spirit  of 
national  and  imperial  domination  which  has  been  the 
undoing  of  Europe?  Or  shall  we  have  learned  our 
lesson?” 


6 


And  what  is  that  lesson?  The  lesson  of  faith  in 
the  power  of  the  ideals  we  profess.  Faith  in  the  in- 
spired teaching  that  “God  hath  made  of  one  blood 
all  the  nations  that  dwell  upon  the  earth.”  Faith 
in  the  imminence  of  “the  parliament  of  man,  the 
federation  of  the  world.”  Faith  that,  with  patience, 
the  representatives  of  the  nations  can  untie  any 
knot  which  could  be  cut  through  by  the  sword. 
These  are  the  larger  implications  of  ou^  Constitu- 
tion ; and  they  must  operate  among  nations,  if  peace 
is  to  endure. 

During  the  debate  on  the  Temple  of  Heaven  draft 
of  the  Constitution  of  China,  on  September  14,  1916, 
a senator  rose  and  asked : “Do  the  members  of  Par- 
liament represent  the  citizens?”  The  reply  was,  of 
course,  “Yes.”  “Then,”  retorted  the  senator,  “how 
can  the  members  of  Parliament,  who  all  represent 
the  people  and  voice  their  opinion,  be  at  fault?” 

The  cynic  smiles  at  such  simple  faith ; but  is  not 
such  faith  more  wholesome,  fairer  to  our  nation  and 
to  all  the  nations  which  look  to  us  for  leadership 
than  the  cynic’s  smile  and  his  cutting  thrust  which 
only  destroys? 

This  is  the  hour  of  faith,  and  those  who  trouble 
to  look  will  see  abundant  cause  for  encouragement 
in  the  manner  in  which  the  spirit  of  our  Constitu- 
tion is  becoming  also  the  spirit  of  the  East. 

China  today  is  passing  through  the  shadow;  but 
her  inevitable  failures,  mistakes  and  sins  against  the 
light,  should  only  serve  to  recall  the  days  of  our  own 
dwelling  in  the  wilderness.  China  is  no  more  asleep 
today  than  were  the  fathers  of  our  Constitution  in 
the  distressing  days  of  the  old  Congress.  She  is 
wide  awake.  Light,  dim  perhaps,  but  true  light, 
has  entered  or  is  entering  the  souls  of  her  teeming 
millions,  and  public  sentiment  in  China  is  surprising- 
ly powerful,  despite  apparent  disorganization.  It 
was  in  the  popular  will,  more  than  in  any  effort  of 
army  or  politicians,  that  the  Manchus  found  the 
resistless  force  which  compelled  their  abdication. 

Furthermore,  the  Chinese  made  their  choice  of 
representative  government  only  after  careful  investi- 
gation. Two  separate  commissions  were  sent  to 


7 


study  the  ways  of  other  nations,  and  only  after  these 
had  reported  in  favor  of  representative  government 
was  it  decided  upon.  Even  then  they  proceeded 
with  extreme  caution,  limiting  the  suffrage  by  intelli- 
gence, property  and  moral  qualifications,  thus  en- 
franchising at  first  only  about  1,000,000  out  of  an 
estimated  400,000,000  population. 

Moreover,  the  ultimate  success  of  the  representa- 
tive idea  in  China  will  be  simplified  by  the  fact  that 
her  people  have  for  generations  enjoyed  a certain 
very  definite  kind  of  local  self-government.  For 
centuries  the  national  authority  ended  with  the 
Hsien,  or  county  official,  whose  administrative  dis- 
trict was  about  as  large  as  the  average  American 
county.  To  him,  and  not  to  the  distant  Emperor,  the 
people  looked  for  the  maintenance  of  order,  the  col- 
lection of  taxes,  and  other  governmental  functions 
most  closely  touching  their  individual  lives.  In 
case  of  failure  to  perform  civic  duties,  it  was  the 
Hsien  and  not  the  distant  Peking  dignitaries  who 
intervened.  But,  aside  from  this  recognition  of  the 
sovereign  control  of  the  nation,  local  affairs  have 
been  controlled  by  the  people. 

These  things,  together  with  the  centuries-old 
Chinese  system  of  guild  government,  furnish  a defi- 
nite preparation  for  the  representative  idea,  making 
the  problems  of  China,  difficult  as  they  are,  far 
easier  than  they  appear  to  the  casual  observer,  ap- 
palled by  statistics  of  population  and  percentages  of 
illiteracy. 

Let  us  also  remember  that  illiteracy  does  not  al- 
ways mean  incompetency.  The  court  of  Charle- 
magne, including  the  Emperor  himself,  was  illiterate, 
not  to  speak  of  the  masses  of  the  people ; but  Charle- 
magne remains  a tower  in  the  landscape  of  the 
world,  and  among  his  illiterate  advisers  were  many 
whom  the  world  still  honors  as  men  of  ability. 

It  is  even  so  in  China.  The  percentage  of  illiter- 
acy is  not  a fair  test  of  the  abilities  of  the  people  of 
China,  seriously  as  it  interferes  with  the  rapid  de- 
velopment of  really  representative  government  The 
Chinese  are  not  a decadent  race;  they  are  only  a 
backward  nation.  Few  of  the  earmarks  of  a wom- 


8 


out  civilization  are  found  among  them.  They  have 
the  capacity  for  progress,  the  will  to  progress,  and 
they  are  today  handling,  however  unskilfully,  the 
political  ideals  of  progress. 

In  the  end,  which  will  be  hastened  or  retarded,  but 
not  determined  by  our  course  of  conduct,  China  will 
doubtless  develop  a republicanism  of  her  own — she 
will  not  merely  borrow  a constitution  from  America. 
And  her  friends  and  well-wishers  must  be  content  to 
see  the  process  move  slowly,  content  provided  only 
that  it  is  in  the  right  direction.  Progress  does  not 
demand  a number  of  mere  replicas  of  the  American 
Republic.  Progress  lies  not  along  the  road  of  mo- 
notonous uniformity  but  of  infinite  variety.  The  fu- 
ture will  probably  see  one  kind  of  republic  in  Anglo- 
Saxon  lands,  others  in  the  lands  of  the  Latins,  Celts, 
Teutons  and  Turks,  and  still  another  kind  in  China. 
“But  all,”  as  Victor  Murdock  has  eloquently  predict- 
ed, “will  have  the  germ  of  Washington’s  and  Hamil- 
ton’s and  Jefferson’s  and  Lincoln’s  idea — which  is 
. . . that  the  evolution  of  a republic  is  to  democ- 

racy, the  evolution  of  democracy  to  the  rule  of  ma- 
jorities, through  spiritual  and  mental  enlightenment, 
to  the  rule  of  the  voice  of  God.” 

By  dint  of  reiteration  we  have  grown  familiar  with 
the  fact  that  the  many  liberal  movements  in  the 
West  have  been  but  the  orderly  and  natural  working 
out  of  the  principles  which  the  Fathers  of  the  Amer- 
ican Revolution — Washington,  Franklin,  Adams  and 
Jefferson,  Pitt,  Fox,  Burke  and  Barre — defended  in 
“the  days  that  tried  men’s  souls.”  The  time  has  now 
come,  by  similar  reiteration,  to  make  men  see  that 
today  that  same  process  is  re-enacting  itself  in  the 
East.  As  surely  as  the  French  soldier  who  fought 
with  Washington  at  Yorktown  carried  back  the 
ideals  that  wrecked  the  ancient  Bourbon  throne,  so 
surely  have  returned  students,  missionaries  and  the 
better  class  of  merchants,  since  the  days  of  Town- 
send Harris  and  Burlingame,  been  carrying  those 
same  ideals  to  China  and  the  Far  East. 

As  today  each  fourth  of  July  witnesses  celebrations 
of  the  great  Declaration,  not  alone  in  America,  but 
in  England  as  well,  even  in  Westminster  Abbey  it- 


9 


self,  so  in  the  near  future  there  shall  come  a day 
when  East  and  West  shall  join  in  celebrating  the 
birth  of  the  ideas  which  are  the  essence  of  the  Amer- 
ican Constitution,  not  because  they  are  American, 
but  because  they  are  the  ideals  of  representative  gov- 
ernment and  the  sovereignty  of  the  people.  Minority 
rule  has  had  its  day,  and  that  day  has  passed.  This 
is  the  day  of  majority  rule,  a conception  enduring 
because  it  is  right,  invincible  because  it  is  just. 

“Politically,  what  do  you  consider  the  most  basic 
prerequisite  of  lasting  peace?”  is  the  question  which 
was  recently  put  to  one  of  America’s  greatest  states- 
men. His  answer  sounded  the  key-note  of  the  new 
era:  “That  the  nations  of  the  world  become  inter- 
nationally minded.” 

By  this  he  did  not  mean  to  advocate  what  is  com- 
monly termed  “internationalism,”  which  desires  the 
desertion  of  the  individual  nation  and  the  transfer 
of  all  individual  affections  to  what  we  call  the  family 
of  nations.  He  meant  rather  that  permanent  peace 
depends  upon  the  development  among  men  of  all 
nations  of  the  ability  to  think  in  terms  larger  than 
special  interests,  whether  those  special  interests  be 
of  the  family,  the  village,  the  state  or  the  nation. 

The  ancient  practice  of  thinking  in  sections,  of 
dreaming  selfish,  provincial  dreams  which  present 
all  other  nations  as  aliens  and  potential  enemies  has 
led  us  through  the  road  of  many  sorrows.  Millions 
of  tiny  white  crosses  mark  the  pathway  of  our  tears. 
It  is  time  to  abandon  that  path  wholly  and  uncondi- 
tionally. The  spirit  of  our  Constitution  has  marched 
before  us  to  China,  as  to  many  other  lands,  making 
us  in  a new  sense  brothers. 

As  Americans  we  can  rightly  glory  in  most  of  the 
victories  which  from  time  to  time  have  crowned  our 
arms,  for  they  were  won  in  the  defense  of  just 
causes ; but  let  us  not  fail  to  glory  more  in  victories 
which  from  time  to  time  have  come  from  deeds  of 
kindness,  acts  of  generous  forbearance  and  broad 
international  sympathies.  For  these  more  truly  rep- 
resent the  ideals  which  our  Fathers  strove  to  em- 
body when  they  wrote  our  Constitution. 


10 


So  long  as  our  separate  states  continued  to  allow 
themselves  to  be  dominated  by  local  thinking,  even 
the  new  Constitution  could  not  give  us  peace.  And 
so  long  as  the  nations  of  the  world  continue  to  allow 
themselves  to  be  dominated  by  local  thinking,  no 
group  of  statesmen,  however  wise,  can  devise  a 
league  of  nations  that  will  give  lasting  peace  to  the 
world. 

Nor  can  international  security  come  either 
through  armament  or  through  disarmament.  It  is 
a matter  of  public  psychology.  Once  let  the  peoples 
of  the  earth  believe,  as  the  saner  people  of  our  own 
states  have  come  to  believe,  that  their  rights  and 
interests  will  be  safer  under  the  protection  of  laws 
than  under  the  protection  of  guns,  and  there  will  be 
abundant  material  for  plough  shares  from  the  river 
to  the  ends  of  the  earth. 

While  contemplating  with  pardonable  pride  the 
American  Constitution,  we  miss  its  crowning  glory 
if  we  think  of  it  too  narrowly.  Its  glory  lies  not 
in  the  fact  that  it  embodies  the  fundamental  law^ 
of  one  nation,  but  in  the  fact  that  it  was  the  first 
written  constitution  to  embody  those  great  ideals  of 
popular  liberty  which  belong  to  no  one  nation  or 
race,  but  are  the  common  heritage  of  free  men  every- 
where. 

God  grant  to  all  nations  vision,  for  “where  there 
is  no  vision  the  people  perish.” 


11 


An  Illuminating  Parallel 


E^ypt  China  Babylonia 

B.C.  B.C.  B.C. 


3400 

King'Menes, 
the  first  his- 
torical reign 


2852 

Opening  of 
the  histor- 
ical period 


2400 

Babylonia 
first  appears 
as  a city 


Hebrews  Greeks  &RonuuH 
B.C.  B.C. 


2300  2205-1766 


Amenemhat  Hia  Dynasty 
III  diked  off  historic 

Lake  Moeris  line  of  Chinese 
Emperors 


2200-1700 

Hyksos 

Kings 


2000-1700 
Babylonia  con- 
quered by 
Kassites 


1766-1122 
Shaiig 
Dynasty 
SfcondhistoTic 
Uneof  Chinese 
Emperors 


? 

1270  1100 

The  Bzodns  Dorian 

Migrations 


? 

? 

1122-255 

1055 

930 

Chon  Dynasty 

Saul  crowned 

Homeric 

Third  historic 

king 

Poems 

lineof  Chinese 

? 

993 

880 

Emperors 

Laws  of 

Temple  of 

Lycnrgns 

Solomon 

776 

bnilt 

First  Olympiad 
Authentic 
beginning  of 
Greek 
chronology 

753 

Rome  founded 

12 


Some  Basic  Facts  Concerning 
Chinese  History 


The  Hia  Dynasty  (B.  C.  2205-1766)  begins  the 
period  of  authentic  imperial  history  in  China, 

The  Shang  Dynasty  (B.  C.  1766-1122)  in  part  con- 
temporary with  the  Eighteenth  Egyptian  Dynasty, 
the  period  of  the  highest  power  of  that  ancient  Em- 
pire of  the  Nile. 

The  Chou  D5masty  (B.  C.  1122  to  255)  produced  at 
least  three  world  figures : 

(1)  Laotsz,  the  founder  of  Taoism. 

(2)  Confucius,  the  sage. 

(3)  Mencius,  the  great  apostle  of  Confucius, 
a contemporary  of  Plato. 

The  Ch’in  Dynasty  (B.  C.  255-206)  is  famous  for 
the  beginning  of  the  Great  Wall  of  China. 

The  Han  Dynasty,  east  and  west  (B.  C.  206  to 
A.  D.  221)  was  marked  by: 

(1)  The  invention  of  paper. 

(2)  The  introduction  of  Buddhism. 

(3)  Institution  of  literary  degrees  which 
formed  the  test  for  civil  service  until  1905. 

The  Tang  Dynasty  (A.  D.  620  to  907)  saw ; 

(1)  The  arrival  in  China  of  the  first  represen- 
tative of  Zoroaster. 


13 


(2)  The  establishment  in  Sianfu  of  Moham- 
medans and  Magians. 

(3)  Block-printing  invented  by  Feng  Toa,  who 
died  in  A.  D.  954. 

The  Sung  Dynasty  (A.  D.  960-1127)  is  known  as 
“the  Periclean  Age  of  China.” 

It  put  into  practice,  in  part  of  China,  a system  of 
socialism  which  Europe  would  consider  advanced, 
even  today.  The  state  took  entire  control  of  com- 
merce, industry  and  agriculture,  in  order  to  make 
certain  that  the  laboring  classes  were  protected.  It 
set  up  a tribunal  to  regulate  the  daily  wage  and  the 
daily  price  of  merchandise.  Taxation  was  planned 
according  to  the  ability  of  men  to  pay.  Old  age 
pensions  were  provided,  and  there  was  a system  of 
state  support  for  the  unemployed.  Seeds  were  dis- 
tributed to  those  willing  to  cultivate  waste  lands, 
and  each  family  with  more  than  two  males  was 
obliged  to  give  one  to  serve  the  state  as  a soldier. 

The  system  was  abandoned  as  unsuccessful  after 
a trial  of  ten  years. 

The  Southern  Sung  D3masty  (A.  D.  1127-1280)  is 
famous  as  the  line  of  emperors  who  selected  Peking 
as  the  national  capital. 

The  Mongol  Dynasty  (A.  D.  1280-1368)  was 
founded  by  Kublai  Khan,  grandson  of  the  mighty 
Ghenghis  Khan.  It  was  of  his  court  that  Marco 
Polo  wrote  in  his  epoch-making  book  “Concerning 
the  Marvels  of  the  East,”  the  book  that  opened  the 
age  of  geographical  discovery,  the  book  over  which 
Christopher  Columbus  poured  as  though  it  were 
inspired.  Columbus’s  search  was  for  a waterway  to 
the  Far  East,  and  he  found  America  while  searching 
for  China. 

Perhaps  if  we  renew  the  search  for  China  we  shall 
discover  a new  and  greater  America. 

The  Mings  (A.  D.  1368-1644)  overthrew  the 
mighty  Mongols,  who  had  held  China  open  to  Euro- 


14 


pean  visitors,  and  under  their  reactionary  rule  China 
adopted  the  fatal  policy  of  exclusiveness. 

The  last  imperial  house  to  rule  in  China  was  the 
Manchu  (A.  D.  1644-1911). 

In  1898  Germany,  as  a compensation  for  the  mur- 
der of  two  missionaries,  forced  China  to  lease  to  her 
the  harbor  and  port  of  Kiaochow  and  certain  exclu- 
sive privileges  in  Shantung  Province.  Russia  fol- 
lowed by  seizing  Port  Arthur  and  Dairen,  Great 
Britain  by  taking  Weihaiwei  in  Shantung,  and 
France  by  taking  “Kwangchow.”  “Spheres  of  influ- 
ence were  also  designated  by  these  powers  and  by 
Japan. 

In  1900  came  the  Boxer  uprising  against  foreign- 
ers, which  resulted  in  the  imposition  upon  China  of 
an  indemnity  of  $333,000,000  gold.  By  the  prompt 
action  of  America  an  attempt  to  actually  partition 
China  was  prevented.  On  July  3,  1900,  John  Hay, 
Secretary  of  State,  sent  a note  to  the  powers  sug- 
gesting that  it  be  declared  the  common  purpose  “to 
afford  all  possible  protection  everywhere  to  foreign 
life  and  property ; to  guard  and  protect  all  legitimate 
foreign  interests ; to  aid  in  preventing  the  spread  of 
such  disorders ; and  to  seek  a solution  which  may 
bring  about  permanent  safety  and  peace  to  China, 
preserve  Chinese  territorial  and  administrative  en- 
tity, protect  all  rights  guaranteed  by  treaty  and  in- 
ternational law  to  friendly  powers,  and  safeguard  for 
the  world  the  principle  of  equal  and  impartial  trade 
with  all  parts  of  the  Chinese  Empire.” 

On  October  10,  1911,  young  China  determined  to 
redeem  China  in  the  eyes  of  the  world  by  overthrow- 
ing a line  of  rulers  of  alien  blood  which  had  held 
the  throne  for  over  two  and  a half  centuries.  On 
February  12,  1912,  this  resolve  was  fulfilled  by  the 
proclamation  of  the  Republic  of  China. 

Since  then  the  great  question  has  been  “Can  it 
succeed?”  It  is  still  a question,  and  one  which  in- 
terests not  alone  a new  China,  but  a new  world. 


15 


“He  who  says  that  others  are  not  equal  to  himself. 


comes  to  ruin.” 

— Shu  King,  the 
“Book  of  History”, 

Edited  by  Confucius. 

Part  IV,  Book  II,  page  4. 


“What  I do  not  wish  men  to  do  to  me,  I also 
wish  not  to  do  to  them.” 

— Analects,  Book  VIII,  Chapter  II. 


The  China  Society  of  America,  Inc. 

19  West  44th  Street 
New  York  City 

an  organization  supported  entirely  by  membership  fees  and 
personal  contributions. 

Its  aim  is  the  promotion  of  friendship,  peace  and  com 
mercial  intercourse  between  China  and  the  United  State* 
of  America. 

President — William  F.  Carey 
Managing  Director — Robert  McElroy 
Treasurer — Edward  C.  Delafield 
Vice-Presidents — Edward  B.  Bruce 

Jeremiah  W.  Jenks 

K.  C.  Li 

BOARD  OF  DIRECTORS 


One  Year  to  1923 


Mrs.  John  Allan  Dougherty 
Mrs.  Murray  Whiting  Ferris 
Mrs.  Simeon  Ford 
Miss  Welthy  B.  Honsingeh 
William  C.  Breed 


William  F.  Carey 
Ralph  Dawson 
Charles  Hayden 
K.  C.  Li 
Ma  Soo 


Two  Years  to  1924 


John  Jay  Abbott 
Edward  B.  Bruce 
Charles  R.  Crane 
Andrew  B.  Humphrey 
G.  Ellsworth  Huggins 


Ginarn  Lao 
Howard  S.  Moy 
Charles  P.  Perin 
Merle  R.  Walker 
L.  R.  Wilfley 


Three  Ye.ars  to  192d 


Frank  G.  Barry 
Abram  E.  Cory 
Jeremiah  W.  Jenks 
E.  M.  McBrier 
Tsze  E.  Pun 


Paul  S.  Reinsch 
F.  R.  Sandford,  Jr 
Louis  L.  Seaman 
Percy  Silver 
Ralph  A.  Ward 


UTrillN  THE  POUR  SEHS  ALL  ARE  nROTHERS." 


